The sad story of Michael Nifong looks like it is taking the final turn as he asks the North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper to have his office take over the prosecution of the remaining charges against the Duke lacrosse players. Combined with a scathing 60 Minutes episode that die to air on Sunday night, Nifong is in a terrible box after his ill conceived decisions on the case.

… spokeswoman for Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s attorney general, confirmed that the office had received Mr. Nifong’s request and said it would be discussed on Saturday. If Mr. Cooper agrees to review the case, it will remove a prosecutor who has become a lightning rod for fierce and unrelenting criticism.

Defense lawyers were jubilant, openly predicting that no prosecutor in the state would continue with a case that hangs almost entirely on the shifting accounts of the alleged victim, a stripper who claims she was assaulted after performing at a team party in March. The woman, who was consulted before Friday’s recusal, remained firm in her desire for the case to go forward against the three former lacrosse players, an official involved in the case said. via the NY Times

60 Minutes is airing a show exposing in the first person some of the mistakes that Nifong made in this case, including candid talks with Dr. Brian Meehan the forensic expert who did not disclose pertinent DNA evidence.

Meehan acknowledged that he has never omitted potentially exculpatory evidence before. “We haven’t done that before,” he tells Stahl. “In retrospect, I should have done a better job of conveying that information.”

Meehan has stated that he told the prosecutor, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, about the other DNA for the first time in mid-April. Later that same month, Nifong indicted three Duke lacrosse players. Meehan has also said in court proceedings that he and Nifong agreed before the evidence tests were completed that his report should be limited to positive matches between the accuser and the players at the team party where she says she was sexually assaulted last March. via 60 Minutes

Also in the interview Mary Ellen Finnerty, mother of Collin Finnerty, explicitly goes after Nifong for the pain they have inflicted on the family. It looks like she held nothing back.

It enraged Mary Ellen Finnerty, mother of Collin Finnerty, another indicted player. “I think [I felt] one of the strongest feelings of rage that I’ve had … I literally had to turn to my husband, because I was shaking from my head to my toe, and say, ‘Hold me down,’” recalls Finnerty. Adds Seligmann, “And we had to hold on to each other because when you sit there and put two and two together and realize that it was calculated … set up to make these boys appear to be guilty of something they didn’t do.”

When asked what they would say to Nifong if he were in the room, Rae Evans, the mother of indicted player David Evans, says, “I would say with a smile on my face, ‘Mr. Nifong, you’ve picked on the wrong families … and you will pay every day for the rest of your life.’” via 60 Minutes

Maybe for DA Nifong’s next act, he will just resign. He has made a complete fiasco of the Duke Lacrosse case and now he bows out. Maybe a resignation of office is necessary as well.

I wish I could tell you that this case would be resolved quickly,” the attorney general, Roy A. Cooper, said at a news conference here on Saturday afternoon. “Since we have not been involved in the investigation or the prosecution of these cases, all of the information will be new to our office. Any case with such serious criminal charges requires a careful and deliberate review.”

Comments

Meehan has stated that he told the prosecutor, Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, about the other DNA for the first time in mid-April. Later that same month, Nifong indicted three Duke lacrosse players. Meehan has also said in court proceedings that he and Nifong agreed before the evidence tests were completed that his report should be limited to positive matches between the accuser and the players at the team party where she says she was sexually assaulted last March
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Why would Meehan go along with this ?
This is so disgusting and I hope they all pay. Malicious prosecution for starters.
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Now this is journalism. Look at this Greta. Learn something.

tuyvnsurvivor on
January 13th, 2007 11:49 am

Much has been exposed in this would be case. No proper verification of a crime, nor reason to bring the boys in for a coffee chat. Rush to judgement, and it is still quite ok to assualt — finally — the ever evassive “rich white boys”. It does not matter that a crime would more likely be committed by a poor white boy onto an rough and rugged ‘street’oe’, or that even greater odds would predict crime onto a ‘hoeier’ of the same race. Frequency, afterall, does matter.

Where are all those who had the boys convicted? Apologies due now. Our law and the document does not intend to quilt by accusation, supported by it is best for the next accusser, ‘just look at the damage that will be done to the next woman coming forward’. We heard that many times. As well we observed one race member after the other reaching way out for condeming racial slurs said to have come from the boys. Guilt on that? Guilt on this?

But I think-I-can think-we-can a juror must hope the accused is innocent, follow the rules of the court, be unbiased and a bunch of nobel things. Gee, those jurors are rare. Let there be at least one for us all.

Nifong has done a disservice to both future rape victims and those accused of rape for the future.

No one likes to think that a victim is lying. However, no one ever wnats a person to be falsely accused of raping someone either. That is why the DA has to do his home work in an ethical manner to get to the truth.

Nifong … you get an F.

R

david r on
January 13th, 2007 2:18 pm

Just another example of prosecution directed by “victim’s rights” rather than the independent legal judgment of the state’s lawyer. All over the country we see prosecutors scared to do the right thing and not go forward with a prosecution because their future political opponents may have annunition for a campaign commercial soundbite that they are “soft on crime.” They would rather convict an innocent person and get re-elected.

Joanie on
January 13th, 2007 4:37 pm

Greta has become more concerned with Rosie, The Donald and Anna Nicole Smith. All that matters to her and her producers are ratings. I will not longer watch her show because of her ‘yellow’ journalism. If I want Hollywood gossip, I’ll buy a STAR! By the way; Boli Nifong in oil!